


M-A-R-A-U-D-E-R-S

by EmDee23



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marauders fandom
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Inspired by Friends (TV), Jily Wedding, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Possible Wolfstar, farting owl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:08:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22316083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmDee23/pseuds/EmDee23
Summary: How wrong can James and Lily's wedding go?Well, when you mix these four with a 90s sitcom the answer is: VERY.Inspired by the FRIENDS episodes 4.22 10.2 7.6 7.23/24
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Mary MacDonald & Peter Pettigrew, Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Remus Lupin & James Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter
Comments: 35
Kudos: 32





	1. The one with the decision

**Author's Note:**

> First of all thanks for clicking on this fic!
> 
> I'm huge Marauders and FRIENDS fan so this is just a bit of fun.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters.
> 
> Credit to the FRIENDS writers for the lines taken from the FRIENDS episodes.

It was four o’clock one Tuesday afternoon. Lily Evans was sitting at her kitchen table looking through her wedding plans. She and James Potter were due to get married in a week and she was stuck doing all the work herself. She didn't blame him: James’s job was specifically to stay out of her way, cups and ice (Lily had put him in charge of the last two so as to spare his feelings even though there were going to be wine glasses and freezing charms on the drinks making James’s job quite useless… Lily had planned that…)

“Honey! I’m _home_!” James’s voice called from the hall.

“Hiya Honey!” Lily tried her best not to cringe at the pet-name. “Leftovers are in the top left cupboard with the cooling charm on it.”

“ _Great!_ ” James came into the kitchen. His glasses were lopsided and his hair was standing up on end. A picture of beauty. She stood up, walked over to the kitchen counter and pulled herself up onto it (with a great amount of effort at five foot four).

“Hard day at work?”

“No. No I wear my glasses like this in the order for… uhm… disguise.” James readjusted the frame of his glasses even more wonkily and smiled at Lily.

“I meant your hair,” she shrugged. “I’m used to your glasses making you look like a drunk flobberworm.”

James pulled a face and Lily leaned forward to kiss his forehead, James pulled his head up and kissed her on the lips. Once they had finished Lily was beaming.

“Ah…see? Nothing like the charm of a drunk flobberworm!” James grinned to himself and took his bowl of leftover pasta over to the kitchen table. He frowned when he saw that the surface of the table was completely covered with wedding plans. “This wedding planning thing! Will it ever end?”

“Yes, after one last decision is made!”

“What?”

“Should the tablecloths have lace on them or not?” she asked him.

“Who’s paying for this wedding again?

“We are.”

“Who needs lace? Regular tablecloths are just as efficient!”

“Great! That was the last decision!” Lily jumped off the counter excitedly.

“What _really?_ ”

Lily nodded.

“Like, for real or is it just another drill?”

“Yes yes yes yes yes _yes_!” Lily ran towards James who had conveniently put the pasta down just in time to catch her and pull her up into his arms.

“We’re going to get married!” she sighed, cupping his face in her hands.

“We’re gonna get married!” This time it was his turn to beam at her. “But you could have told me as soon as I got home…”

“But the last decision hadn’t been made yet!” she argued.

“But it was only a tiny, insignificant decision!”

“Do you really want to go down that road again?” she asked, her eyes flaring dangerously.

“No,” he said. “How about this one?” and he kissed her again.

“We’re getting married!” Lily sighed again. It had naturally only been her dream since she was six and had been a bridesmaid at her aunt Danielle’s wedding. When she had got home that evening she had hung a pillowcase over her head and arranged a small ceremony with all of her toys (Ken the barbie-doll being the groom) and practiced saying _I do_ until Petunia had thrown the said caseless pillow at her. Ever since then she and Petunia had spent most of their time together planning their weddings. Every. Little. Detail. From what flowers would be in the bouquet to the icing on their three-tier cakes to the little people standing on top of them, looking through fashionmagazines to find their perfect wedding dresses and promising to be each other’s Maid of Honor… well, the last one went out of the window the day Lily was accepted into Hogwarts. Lily’s Maid of Honor was going to be Marlene McKinnon and James’s best man was going to be… who _was_ James’s best man going to be? Had he even chosen?

“And the wedding planning is over! Hallelujah!” James almost sang.

“Well… actually…” Lily said tentatively.

“What? What is it?” James put her down as his eyes widened in horror.

“Well, there _is_ one last thing…”

“Whatever it is, you can choose and I’m fine with it!”

“I can’t exactly decide this…”

“What can _you_ not decide?”

“Your best man?” she blurted out.

James sighed and sat down.“I was hoping you’d forgotten about that,” he mumbled. 

“Well, I had. I remembered just now.”

James sighed. “I don’t know who to choose… I don’t _really_ want to be like: you’re all my best friends but you are better than the others - that’s just mean.”

Lily fought back the impulse to smile in such a dire situation for her fiancé. If someone had come up to her five years ago and told her that in a few years time James Toerag Potter was going to be beating himself up because he didn’t want to be too mean to anyone she would have laughed in their face.

And yet here she was.

And oh yeah. They were engaged.

“Look James I’m sure they’ll understand no matter what you do. I mean you _are_ only allowed to have _one_ best man -“ she started but he cut her off.

“But I have _three_ choices: Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot,”

Lily couldn’t help but think that they sounded like a wizard version of Pigeon Street.

“I’m aware,” she told him, sitting down on the settee next to him. “But you have to try and choose. Tell you what - think about it till Friday and then go over to Moony and Pads’ and break it to them _slowly_ okay?”

“Okay,” he mumbled.

“Well, I need to go and have a shower.” Lily got up and kissed him on the forehead and left the room, regretfully leaving her fiancé to make this _very_ difficult decision on his own.

…

By Friday James had made his decision. Sort of. He had given it a lot of thought throughout the week and now he was pretty confident about who it was going to be. It was going to be Peter. James figured that Peter was a great friend and had always been able to make him feel better. Peter was also his _oldest_ friend. They had clicked the minute they met on the train to Hogwarts. Sirius and Remus, on the other hand, had been a lot harder to befriend. Peter had just always been so easy-going. There was no my-family-hates-me or I’m-an-outcast-of-society drama going on there. Just plain old times where jokes about dungbombs were still funny.

So Peter it was.

He knocked at the door and waited for someone to answer it. Remus appeared at the door moments later.

“Hiya Prongs,” he said with a grin.

“Hey Moony,” James answered, stepping inside the small messy apartment and putting the butter beer he had brought with him on the counter. “Look, I need to talk to you about something very important.”

“What, just me or all of us?” Remus asked, shutting the door behind him.

“All of you. Where are Wormy and Pads?”

“Padfoot’s asleep and Wormy’s at his place, I think,” Remus said, still frowning.

“Well then floo Peter and help me get Sirius up!”

“Oh no. You want Sirius awake, _you_ wake him up,” Remus said darkly. James couldn’t blame him. Trying to get Sirius up was like trying to cuddle a Blast-Ended Skrewt. Therefore, near impossible without suffering serious injuries. “ _I’ll_ floo Peter.”

James walked carefully into Padfoot’s dark bedroom. With a flick of his wand he opened the curtains. Sirius winced in his sleep but continued peacefully snoring.

“Padfoot,” James said taking the covers off Sirius’s bed. Sirius shivered and rolled over but was still asleep.

“Padfoot.” James repeated a bit louder.

It wasn’t working.

“Aguamenti,” James muttered, pointing his wand at Sirius’s head. Not even the water had any effect on Sirius.

“Come _on_ Pads, be cooperative!” James shook his friend but Sirius just responded with a slap that was surprisingly forceful for someone who was apparently dead to the world.

“Padfoot!”

“ _Padfoot!_ ”

“PADFOOT!”

“ _PADFOOT!_ ”

“ _SIRIUS ORION BLACK YOU GET YOUR LAZY BACKSIDE OFF THAT MATTRESS BEFORE I DO IT MYSELF!”_

Sirius sat up with a start and squinted at James. “Well, what do you know! I guess married couples _do_ start to look alike.” 

…

“So, to what do we owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?” Sirius asked once James had them all seated at the counter drinking butter beer.

“It’s about the wedding.”

“What about it?” Peter asked.

James swallowed his butter beer before answering. “I’ve decided who my best man is going to be.”

The anticipation on their faces made James think that they had been thinking about it too.

“And, I’ve decided that it’s going to be: Peter.”

“What?”

“What!?”

“ _What!?_ ”

“What?”

The first two had been of disbelief, the third of surprise and the last had been James’s, who had instantly regretted saying what he had just said.

“You - you’re making _Peter_ best man?” Sirius asked slowly as if trying to make sure that his best friend was still sane.

“Yes.” James looked Sirius in the eye challengingly, although he now realized he wasn’t even that sure himself. “Yes! Peter is going to be my best man.”

“Wow! Really?” Peter beamed at James. “This…. this really means a lot! And you know, if I ever get married then you should definitely be my best man!”

“Cheers mate!” James lifted his butter beer bottle to Peter.

“No. Now wait!” Sirius put his own bottle down. “If Peter is James’s best man and James is Peter’s best man that means i’m never going to be a best man!”

“No hey!” Remus spoke up for maybe the second time in the whole conversation. “You can be my best man!”

“I’m _never_ going to be best man!” Sirius repeated as if what Remus had just said just proved his point even more, ignoring the whack on the back of the head that the latter gave him.

“Ok then, Sirius _you_ can get to be best man when I get married,” Peter said nonchalantly.

“No wait then that’s not fair on me!” James said indignantly. “I make you my best man and you don’t make me yours?”

“I’ll make you mine, if you like, Prongs!” Sirius piped up eagerly.

“Thank you Padfoot! And in return you should be mine!”

“Really?” Sirius’s face lit up considerably.

“ _What!?_ ” Peter spat almost at the same time.

“Yeah! And _as_ my best man - here!” James handed Sirius a small leather-bound box that contained his ring for Lily.

“Prongs, mate, I love you and I’m happy you made me your best man - but don’t you think marriage is a little much?” Sirius asked, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.

“No idiot! This is for Lily! I need you to keep it safe for Sunday, ok?”

“Right, great!” Sirius said, opening the box and glancing at the gold ring inside.

“Merlin! I’m never going to be best man!” Peter muttered, eyeing the ring with a greedy glint in his eye.

Remus finally let out an exasperated sigh. “Why does everyone _still_ think that I’m never going to get married?”

…

“MOOOOONYYYYYY!!!!!!!”

“What?! Sirius, what is it?” Remus catapulted himself out of his own bedroom and into Sirius’s.

Sirius was holding the small leather-bound box. An empty small leather-bound box.

“Sirius did you -“

“Shh Moony!”

“Did you _lose_ the ring?”

“ _No_!”

“Well, do you _have_ the ring?”

“Not… so much, no.”

“Merlins pants Padfoot!”

“What?”

“You’re the _worst_ best man ever!”

“Not helping.”

“I know I’m not. That’s why I said it.”

“Can you stop being a git for five minutes and help me look for it?”

Remus sighed. “Fine! Where did you last have it?”

“If I knew that, we wouldn’t be here looking for it.”

“Where’s Clawfoot?” asked Remus, looking round for their ridiculously tiny tawny owl.

“Dunno, why?”

“‘Cause I’m Owling James,”

“No no no no no nono no no nono!” Sirius grabbed Remus by the elbow before he could leave the room.

“Why not?”

“Because then he’s gonna think that I’m the worst best man ever!”

“But that’s true -“

“And I’m not denying that! I’m just saying _please_ help me look for it before you go running off to Prongs! It’s probably just somewhere in my room anyway!”

“Okay fine!” Remus sighed again. “Let me just go and get a clothes peg,”

“Why?”

“Because if we’re going to be looking around under _your_ bed then I have to be well prepared.”

…

After almost a whole day of searching the ring was nowhere to be seen.

“That’s it Padfoot! It’s lost. You’re going to die and I will not be able to help that,” Remus said throwing down the sixth box that they had been searching though.

“Yeah… I’d actually figured that out hours ago -“

“How many hours?” Remus asked through gritted teeth.

“Like - when I found out that it was lost.”

Remus groaned and buried his face in his hands.

“How’re we gonna tell Prongs?”

“If you’re talking about how _you’re_ going to tell Prongs, then I have no idea.”

“I could owl him?”

“I don’t think Clawfoot’s feeling well.” Remus nodded towards the tiny owl curled up on a cushion.

“Yeah, he keeps farting,” Sirius said, casting yet another de-odouring charm over the owl. “Did you give him the potion?”

“Yes…. Don’t think it did anything, though.”

“Well, then, if I can’t owl Prongs, what do I do?”

“You’ve got to floo him.”

Sirius didn’t seem too fond of the idea.

“And tell him to his _face_?”

“That is the idea, yes.”

….

“M-my ring?” James blurted out after Sirius had finished telling the story.

“Yes.”

“My ring that I was going give Lily on my wedding day?”

“Yes.”

“Lily my fiancé?”

“Yes.”

“My wedding day that’s tomorrow?”

“Prongs, we have patio furniture in our kitchen. How many rings do you think we own?”

James closed his eyes and looked like he was counting to ten. When he opened them again Sirius briefly wondered if you could get punched via the floo network.

“I can’t believe this!”

“I’m _sorry_ Prongs!”

“Yeah well, unless sorry will, I don’t know, bring back the ring, then I don’t wanna hear it!”

“Prongs-“

“I don’t want hear your excuses Padfoot!”

“Yeah no, I don’t either, just Prongs -”

“Is Moony there?”

“Moony? Yeah um… why?”

“Can you call him?” James asked impassively.

“Yeah, um ok - wait a minute,” he told him before pulling his head out of the fire and looking round to where Remus was standing in the middle of the living room. “Prongs wants to talk to you.”

Remus’s eyes immediately widened. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know!”

“But I didn’t even do anything!”

“I know, but would you just please-“

“Ok ok!”

Remus bent down and stuck his head into the embers.

Sirius of course couldn’t hear much of the conversation which was mostly muffled although he noticed Remus’s tense body relax for a moment before immediately stiffening again. When he finally came back out with his face covered in soot his expression was completely neutral.

“So what happened?” Sirius asked.

“We just talked about how irresponsible you are and how you can’t be trusted with anything.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And how I should be best man instead -“

“WHAT!” Sirius exclaimed before realizing he was probably sounding like an idiot and cleared his throat. “I mean, you know, it’s _fine_. It was to be expected.”

Remus looked slightly taken aback by Sirius’s sudden burst of maturity. “Are you sure? You really sounded a bit -“

“What? Surprised? Well, yes I was, but the point is that now I’m _fiiiiine._ ” Sirius really wanted to highlight the fact that he really was _fine_.

Remus frowned. “It’s just that - you just pronounced the word ‘fine’ with about five ‘i’s.”

“No, it’s because I’m actually _fiiiine .”_

_“You sure?_ You don’t sound like it.” Remus looked him in the eyes (which Sirius realized were too wide and immediately adjusted them to a more normal size). “It’s fine if you’re not fine, it’s just that you need to understand that you made a right pig’s ear out of everything and -“

“That’s why I said: I’m fiiiiiiine.” Sirius made sure his tone wasn’t as high-pitched this time.

“You’re not fine, you’re _fiiiiiiine._ ”

“Well, what’s the difference?”

“The difference is: ‘fine’ is what you are when you’re actually fine - hence the word ‘fine’. _Fiiiiine_ is what you are when you’re not actually fine but want people to think that you’re fine by adding extra ‘i’s into the ‘fine’ to make people think that you’re more ‘fine’!”

Sirius needed a moment to process this. “Did you… research this?”

“Fine! So what if I did?”

“Well, it’s fine by me!” Sirius retorted.

“Well then, if everything’s fine, I’m going to bed.”

“ _Fine!_ ”

“ _Fine_!” and with that Remus slammed his door shut.

….

It was going to be a small garden wedding, just close friends and family (well… whatever was left of it). This is what Remus’s oh-so-happy thoughts were while he levitated the streamers into the air. Mostly he was still perturbed about last night’s occurrences. What was Sirius on about? It wasn’t _that unfair -_ actually it wasn’t unfair at _all_. Sirius was being spoilt and selfish, two things that not in a million years did Remus think he would be describing his best friend as. Also what was he going to do about his best man speech? He figured he would just wing it, an idea that Remus was _not_ a fan of, but honestly he didn’t really have a choice. And dammit, this was all just Sirius’s-

“Moony!”

What the - had he been saying this out loud? In shock Remus dropped his wand and all of the streamers came crashing down to the ground.

“ _Padfoot!_ ”Remus exclaimed in exasperation as he bent down to pick his wand up.

“Sorry, sorry, Moony listen -“

“Sirius, I don’t have time to listen to you complaining about the injustice of life _right_ now.” Remus gestured towards the pile of streamers in the middle of the floor.

“Yeah, um, that’s not what I want to talk to you about, _actually._ ”

“Really? What, then?” Remus frowned. ****

Sirius glanced around the room only to notice that there was a group of Lily’s friends arranging flowers in a corner and ushered Remus away from them.

“What, is this a secret?” Remus asked wondering what the melodrama was all about.

“No, I just don’t want people to hear me being so mushy,” Sirius answered quickly before continuing. “I realize that, at some point along the line, I may have been a bit annoying to you, Peter and Prongs -“

“Oh yes, that is mushy.” Remus raised a sarcastic eyebrow at Sirius.

“Ok _fine_! I was an ass to you and to Peter and to Prongs and I had no right to act the way I did! Better?”

“ _Much_ better.”

Sirius let out a sigh. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I’m happy that you’re best man and I wanted to give you some pictures that could help you with your best man speech since you only have a couple of hours before you actually have to give it.”

Remus took the photo album from Sirius and started leafing through it. “Thanks Pads - you know this really helps,”

“Yeah. I’d suggest talking about Lily and Prongs from sixth year onwards - when they didn’t hate each other as much, you know like I did.”

“You wrote your best man speech in a _day_?” Remus asked.

“Hey, I’m a fast thinker Moony!” Sirius said defensively.

“You prepared in advance, didn’t you?” Remus shook his head. Sirius really did read like a book.

“Little bit.”

“Can I see it?”

“Oh yeah -“ Sirius stuck a hand in his coat pocket and took out a crumpled up piece of parchment. “Here.”

Remus read it through, glancing up at Sirius every now and then. When he was done he raised an eyebrow at Sirius. “This has at least six deer puns in it.”

“Well no, eight actually if you count this one,” Sirius pointed out.

“Yeah, but you could make a ninth one out of this here,” Remus contributed.

“Oh yeah,” Sirius laughed.

“Padfoot, how long ago did you write this?” Remus asked hoping for the answer to be ‘not recently’. It would be ridiculous if a nineteen year old didn’t know that “couldn’t of done” was incorrect.

“‘Couple or so years ago.”

“That must have been when you were about sixteen or seventeen.” Around the age that he had moved in with the Potters after he had been disowned by his family. During that time Sirius had written a speech about how much of a good friend James was and how he wanted good things for him. Of course!

Dammit.

Why, oh why was Sirius such a nice person?

Stupid, reckless and arrogant, definitely, but why was he so nice?

Remus was going to regret this someday.

“Pads, I need to tell you something.”

“That the deer puns are terrible?”

That was true. “Ok, I need to tell you two things.” Remus took a deep breath. “I… think that you should be best man.”

Sirius frowned at his friend and scrutinized him. “Do you feel well?”

“I don’t know …” Remus answered slowly. “But what I _do_ know is that this obviously means way more to you than it does to us.”

Sirius just stared.

“I mean - none of us prepared a speech three years in advance - you and James are like brothers, you know, it’s right that you’re his best man,” Remus finished, but it wasn't long before Sirius was hugging him.

Sirius had always been a huggish sort of person and Remus was sure that it was one of the main reasons why his animagus was a dog.

“But… I lost the ring, and it’s Prongs’ wedding like you mentioned.”

Remus contemplated for a moment. “Maybe we can convince him? I don’t know. And about the ring… me being best man isn’t going to bring it back is it?”

“You sure?” Sirius asked.

“Positive,” Remus answered.

“How shall we tell James?”

“We’ll see him in like twenty minutes - we’ll tell him there.”

“What like - an hour before the wedding?”

To be honest that did sound a bit stupid and really not something that Remus would do. “Desperate times call for desperate measures?”

“Guys!” The two spun round to see a panting Peter staring at them.

“What is it?” 

“You need to help me! Lily’s going crazy and Prongs is having a crisis!”

_Oh no._

“Are you one hundred percent sure that there’s _no_ way you can get the ring back? It would help a lot if you could just - find it.”

Remus answered before Sirius could implode on himself. “Peter, first of all: it’s not that simple and second: we’ve tried _everything._ Trust me.”

Peter looked at them helplessly. “Everything? Even Accio?”

Now, normally they would have laughed in Peter’s face for this. Of course they would have used Accio. That’s the first spell that a wizard uses when he finds out that he’s lost something. And Peter was suggesting that after a whole day of searching and arguing, two fully-grown wizards wouldn’t have thought of using it. Completely ridiculous. And they would have laughed in Peter’s face.

But they didn’t.

Because they had actually _not_ thought to use Accio.

So they just stared at Peter.

And then at each other.

And right then was the moment in which Remus questioned his entire existence.

More than he ever had during the past fifteen years of his life that he had spent feeling like a burden, an embarrassment to humanity and unworthy of anything in the world - even love.

No, it was right then.

Meanwhile Sirius had muttered _somethiiiiiiing_ and had taken his wand out without looking at Peter once. “Accio James’s wedding ring!”

Just them a ball of feathers came hurtling Sirius’s way and hit him squarely in the face. “Ouch! Not now Clawfoot! I’m doing something,” he said, taking the owl off his face and spitting a feather out. “See Peter, even if we _had_ tried Accio it wouldn’t have worked!”

But it had worked. Clawfoot had had stomach ache since the ring had gone missing. That tiny fat owl was notorious for eating anything in its path. And now it had come hurtling towards Sirius just as he said Accio James’s wedding ring.

Remus took a deep breath. “Padfoot, use your last four remaining braincells and _connect the dots._ ”


	2. The one with the owl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to be that author that disappears for five months and then comes back like: I can explain- but yet here we are. Also thank you to anyone who's left kudos and/or commented I know you're just being nice but it means so much to me! So anyway chapter two: Enjoy!

Peter and Remus stared at Sirius for a whole five seconds before the latter’s mouth dropped open.

“Oh. Merlin.” Sirius took a deep breath. “The ring’s _inside_ Clawfoot!”

“I would be relieved -” Remus started.

“Well, don’t be,” Peter cut in. “We have two options: we either convince James to give Lily a farting owl as a wedding ring, _or_ we all suddenly become advanced animal surgeons and somehow manage to extract the small piece of gold _from_ said farting owl.”

“I think we have more chance of surviving the second one,” Sirius opted.

“ _Or_ we could just go to the vet,” Remus suggested.

“ _The vet_?” Peter said incredulously, his big blue eyes widening. “That’s all the way into town!”

“Do you have a better idea?” Sirius asked.

“Moony!” Peter turned desperately to Remus. “We’ve got an hour before the wedding!”

“Then we’re just going to have to be quick,” Remus said nonplussed.

“Oh no,” Peter told them darkly. “One, you two still have to get ready and two, there is _no way_ that you two are leaving me alone with Prongs. Again.”

“Then what, are _you_ going to take Clawfoot to the vet?” Sirius asked.

“Well…”

“Do you even know how the vet works?”

“No.”

Remus closed his eyes and massaged his temples. He needed to think.

“Mary!” he exclaimed suddenly.

“Mary… Jesus?” Peter asked.

“No! MacDonald! She’ll know how to take an owl to the vet.” Remus handed Peter the owl. “Go find her, take Clawfoot to the vet and _try_ to be back within the hour. Ok?”

“Ok, I trust that you two will take care of Prongs?”

“ _Yes_!” Remus told him exasperatedly. “Now _go_!”

And with that, he and Sirius tore off down the hall to find James.

…

Peter stared after them for a moment before thinking. Right. Mary. He turned round to face the little garden with the lines of mismatched chairs facing the makeshift altar and spotted Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadows chatting as they levitated some streamers (that had apparently been dropped).

“McKinnon!” he called as he ran over to them.

“What is it Pete?” she asked.

“You haven’t by any chance seen Mary, have you?”

“I think she’s upstairs with Lily,” Dorcas told him. “Why?”

“Nothing, I -“ Peter looked down at the owl that he was still holding. “I _really_ need to take him to the vet.”

“What, now?”

“Yes. _Now_ ,” he answered simply. “Thanks for the help guys,” he thanked them before tearing off upstairs to try and find the bride.

Not knowing which one Lily’s room was he knocked on almost every door on the second floor beefier he found the right one.

“Mary!” he exclaimed when he arrived at the door.

He only managed to catch a glimpse of Lily in a beautiful white dress giving him the death glare before his view was blocked by Mary, who ushered him outside the door.

“What is it?” she asked him irritably.

“Is Lily ok?” he asked. “She looked a bit -“

“Stressed? Hmm yes. She just saw those two brainless idiots you try to pass off as friends wiz past here and they’re not even _ready_ yet!”

Was he really _trying_ to pass them off as friends? Was he?

“Seriously, what’s this about?”

“Umm… do you know how the vet works?”

“What do you mean how does it _work_? It’s a vet.”

“Yes. I need you to take me there. _Now_.”

“Why?”

Peter showed her the tiny owl. “He swallowed the wedding ring.”

“Aww the poor thing!” Mary exclaimed. “Here, give him to me.”

“Please.” Peter was all too happy to not have to hold him the rest of the way.

“Come on, we have to be quick,” she said.

Yes - well duh.

….

They apparated outside of Adam’s Vet shortly after and burst through the door. It was full of people waiting with their pets to be seen. The man at the counter (presumably Adam) looked up at them over his glasses.

“Excuse me,” he told the old lady with a cat he was helping. She thanked him and left.

“We -“ Peter started but was cut off by a large menacing black dog with an equally menacing owner, growling.

“We - we need you to -“Mary tried, stepping away from the dog. “We have an emergency.”

‘Presumably Adam’ raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“This owl, we need you to see him. He - he swallowed a wedding ring.”

“An _owl_ swallowed a _wedding ring_?” The man with the black dog jeered.

Mary scoffed and rolled her eyes. “ _Yes_.” She turned back to ‘presumably Adam’. “We’re in a rush and we really need you to see him now.”

“Is the owl in any mortal peril?” ‘Adam’ asked.

“No - no he isn’t, at least I don’t _think s_ o,” Peter answered. How was _he_ supposed to know?

“Is it breathing?” ‘Adam’ rephrased it.

“Yes, he is.” Mary answered surely.

“Then I’m going to have to ask you to wait,” ‘Adam’ told them, indicating a plastic seat in the corner.

Peter scanned the room. There were three cats, the black dog, a staffie with a cone around his neck, two parrots, _and_ a squirrel - although Peter wasn’t exactly sure if it belonged to anyone. What he _was_ sure of was that they didn’t have time to wait for all of those pets to go in before they did.

“ _No_!” Peter exclaimed. “I mean we don’t have much time! We _really_ need you to see him now!”

“Why don’t you have time?” ‘Adam’ asked.

“We…” Peter hesitated. “are late for our friend’s wedding” wasn’t a good enough excuse. He had to think up smoothing better than that. If there was something that Peter was good at, it was lying. Back at Hogwarts the only person better than him at getting himself out of trouble was Remus. “We… _we have to catch the plane_!” Peter blurted out.

Ok, so maybe he didn’t think his lies through.

“I’m sorry -“

“The plane?” said Mary.

“Yes.”

“To where?” Mary asked.

Peter shot her an annoyed glance. Ok ok, places around the world… places…places… _why were there no places!_ “Wyoming,” he blurted out again. “Don’t you remember?” he asked Mary in the hope that she might catch on.

“Oh yes!” she turned to ‘Adam’ with a charming smile on her face. “I tend to forget things easily.”

“She had amnesia,” Peter told ‘Adam’ before instantly regretting it. What was he doing? He’d already told the lie!

“How is -“

“Dammit Adam, we’re losing time! That plane’ll take off in a couple of hours!” Mary snapped.

‘Adam’ raised an eyebrow at Peter, who shrugged. “Ok,” he told them. “I’ll see him, and -“ he turned to Mary. “My name isn’t Adam.”

And so, ‘apparently not Adam’ took clawfoot and walked down the hall.

“What are you doing? We don’t have until twelve!” Peter told Mary in an annoyed whisper as they followed the vet down the hall.

“Shhh! I’m meant to have amnesia!”

…

Sirius waited before opening the door to James’s room. His hands were still shaking after having been screamed at by Lily. He looked at Remus, who had gone very pale.

He took a shaky breath to steady himself. “You ready?”

“Yes,” Remus choked out.

And so Sirius opened the door. Now, in their years at Hogwarts both Remus and Sirius had had more than their fair share of emotional meltdowns, panic attacks and angry outbursts. During exam periods they happened almost once a week and the odds increased if the full moon was close or if they had seen any member of the Black family recently. They had always happened to Remus, Sirius and Peter but _never_ James. Sirius had eventually come to the conclusion that James was just physically incapable of being anything other than his usual happy-go-lucky self. _However_. Sirius was wrong. Very wrong. Because what Sirius saw when he opened that door was James Potter, evidently panicking.

And talking to a cactus for some reason.

Sirius didn’t judge. Everyone had their own coping methods.

“Prongs?” Sirius asked.

“Yeah?” James bounced up from the bed he’d been sitting on.

“Are…. you ok?” Remus asked slowly.

“ _What!_ ” James exclaimed, his voice far too squeaky. “Of course! I- I- I’m fiiine!”

Sirius and Remus exchanged _very_ worried glances. “How many ’i’s did he say?” Sirius asked.

“I don’t know, but it was more than one.”

“Prongs, sit down,” Sirius said, slinging an arm around his best friend’s shoulders and sitting him back down on the bed. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing I-“

“ _Prongs_ ,” Remus said, glaring at James.

“Pads. Help. He’s giving me the Moony-glare.”

The infamous Moony-glare was that look that Remus gave people that told you that he could see right through any idiocy you said. Sirius hated it usually, however this time he was glad that _someone_ could knock some sense into James.

“Prongs, you were _talking to a cactus_ , what were you telling it?” Sirius insisted.

There was a moment of silence in which James seemed to contemplate the best way to phrase it.

“I -“ James hesitated and ran a hand through his hair subconciously. “I’m… sort of… scared,”

“Scared?!”

“Yeah! Like - think about it -“ James’ voice had gone a bit crackly. “I - I’m about to get married right? And if everything goes well - I’m going to stay married for the rest of my life! That’s a long time! And -“

“Prongs,” Sirius interjected. “You _do_ want to marry Lily, right?”

“O - of course I do, I - I want to spend the rest of my life with her I - I’m just scared… what if everything goes wrong or - or she doesn’t want to -“

“ _James_!” Sirius exclaimed. “First of all: Of course Lily wants to marry you. If she didn’t - do you really think she’d have any problem telling you?”

“N- I don’t know… maybe I… charmed her into into it?” James nervously ran a hand through his hair again. Remus shot Sirius a look that clearly implied that James still needed to fully grasp the concept of self-doubt. Sirius chose to ignore this and make fun of his best mate later.

“ _Second of all_ : Prongs, you and Lily have something the rest of us could only _dream_ of. You love each other and that’s what matters _now_. Right now. Don’t think about the future okay?” Sirius took James’s shoulders and forced his friend to look at him. “Because I’m not sure if anyone told you but - we’re in the middle of a war here and for all we know… we could just all die tomorrow - hell you could die falling down the stairs or - or -“

“Sirius, I _beg_ you to get to the point,” Remus interrupted him.

“Right. Point is: Lots of things could happen in the future but you can’t think about the what-ifs. Just think about what you’re _sure_ about.”

James remained silent.

“So… what are you sure about?” Sirius incited him.

“I -“ James paused to clear his throat. “I love Lily.” James stared into space for a second before adding. “ _And_ I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”

“Good one old bean!” Sirius bounced up off the sofa to (for some reason) shake James’s hand.

“Old be - you just had to ruin it, didn’t you?” Remus rolled his eyes.

“Thanks mate,” James said giving Sirius a hug which was happily returned. “You’re good at this sort of thing.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m your best man then, innit?” Sirius broke the news to him. 

“What?” James instantly detached from the hug. “Wasn’t Pe - I mean Moony my best man?”

“Yeah, ‘bout that,” Remus got up from the end of the bed. “Slight change of plan.”

“Sirius? But I mean he -“

“Lost your ring? Yeah… Good thing we found it though.” Sirius added.

“You found it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not here.”

“Well then where is it?”

“Hmm… you know that we have an owl?”

“Yes…”  
  
“And you know that it has a stomach?”

“Yes?”

“Yes. That is where your ring is.”

James just stared, his left eye slightly twitching. Sirius, foreseeing the fact that his position as best man was definitely at risk, took Remus’s arm and dragged him in the direction of the his room before adding in an over-cheerful tone.

“Well, nice seeing you Prongs! We have to get ready!”


	3. The one with the wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ummm... so like it’s been months lol. I feel bad. I tried to put some more jily. Hope you enjoy!

“Pads where is my other sock?”

“No idea. Where’s my bow-tie?”

“Do you think I can get away with wearing odd socks?”

“To a wedding? Moony that is scandalous!”

“Shut it and hand me a sock.”

“Guys!” James banged on Sirius’ bedroom door exasperatedly. “Hurry up!”

“Right, sorry Prongs, almost done,” James heard Sirius say from the other side of the door. “How much time do we have?”

James glanced at his watch. Ten forty. “Minus ten minutes!” he told them.

“Welp! Ready when you are!”

…

When he Sirius and Remus got down to the garden, James had to admit that it was very well decorated. Pale pink and green streamers ran through the trees up to the small alter that consisted of a table covered with a white table cloth in front of a light green garden shed (this had also been decorated with more streamers). James probably would have appreciated it more if there hadn’t been a very angry Marlene McKinnon in a pale green bridesmaid’s dress marching towards them.

“Where’ve you been?” she demanded.

“Uhhh well-“

“There was like… you know -“

“The ring - and the owl…”

“And then the cactus…”

“Never mind! Forget I asked!” She made to push past them but Sirius stopped her.

“Woah - where are you going?” he asked.

“To get Lily -“

“No no no no no no no no no no no no!” James grabbed her arm. “No - there’s, umm a bit of a mess.” He told her about the ring and the owl and the vet and how they couldn’t start the wedding until Peter and Mary got back.

When he had finished Marlene looked dumbfounded. “So what do you want me to tell Lily? I mean the wedding was supposed to start what - a quarter of an hour ago?”

“I don’t know,” James closed his eyes to try and think. “Uhhh… tell her that we’re just having some technical difficulties with the uhhhh…” he glanced around the well-decorated garden. “ The levitating charms for the streamers.”

Marlene looked at him skeptically before sighing. “Fine!” she conceded before marching down the stone steps and into the house.

“Tell Lily everything’s fine!” James called after her.  
  


…

Everything was not fine. It didn’t take James long to gather as much. The guests had already arrived: the Longbottoms, Andromeda and her husband Ted, professor McGonagall, quite a few members of the Order including Mad-Eye Moody who double checked every protective spell that they’d put on the house and, of course, family. This last one only consisted of Lily’s mother, considering her father had passed away three years prior due to lung disease. Petunia and her husband had refused to come and James’s parents had died of dragon pox during his seventh year at Hogwarts.

He grinned to himself as he imagined his mother’s expression and how much his father would have taken the piss if they’d known what was happening. People wanted to know what was going on and where Lily was and if they were early, Potter, because they’d double checked the invitation and it said ten o’clock.

Yes, they would have loved this.

He, Sirius and Remus kept telling everyone that it shouldn’t be long now despite the fact they too had no clue when Peter and Mary were going to arrive.

“Turn into a dog,” James told Sirius as they discussed what to do next with Remus. It was already half past ten and they were getting desperate.

“Prongs, I’ve known you for almost ten years and this must be one of the stupidest ideas you’ve ever had,” Remus said.

“Do you have a better idea?” James demanded.

Remus sighed and looked around at the guests. “Yes- well… sort of.” His tone was somewhat guilty.

“Oooooh I know that tone!” Sirius said excitedly. James knew that tone too. It was the tone Remus used when correcting their pranks to make them all the more efficient. Unfortunately it was not the tone James wanted to hear on his wedding day.

He sighed reluctantly. “Ok what is it?”

“Well…” Remus started fiddling with the sleeve of his dress robes, fraying the hem, and James slapped his hand away. “We could ask someone if they’ve got a ring.”

“Ok let’s do it,” James said.

“What!” Sirius yelped. Remus was also looking surprised, his mouth hanging slightly open.

“Let’s do it!” James explained. “Listen, Dorcas and Marlene are probably restraining Lily by force by now and I don’t want my future wife’s memories of our wedding day to be having to stun her two best friends!”

“Ok then!” Sirius smiled and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Does anyone have a ring that we could borrow?” he yelled.

The guests stated talking among themselves, asking each other if they had one.

“What kind of ring?” asked Elphias Dodge.

“You know the kind that goes on your finger,” Sirius replied. “Preferably round!”

“I have one!” Dedalus Diggle proudly held up a silver ring before promptly dropping it.

The small crowd made to go after the ring, knocking over several chairs in the process. Edgar Bones tripped over someone’s owl, opening the cage. The tawny owl flew out of its cage and got caught in Emmeline Vance’s hair who let out an awful shriek.

“What’s going on?” a worried voice said from behind James, who spun round.

“Lily!”

Lily had appeared with her wand out. She was wearing a beautiful white satin wedding dress with long sleeves, a v-neck and cream colored flowers embroidered around the hem. Her auburn hair was done in a messy-yet-elegant updo and her veil was pinned underneath it. She looked stunning. James was pretty sure he’d forgotten how to breathe.

Oh no - wait.

There it was.

Ok.

“James, what’s going on?” Her voice was shaking slightly. James noticed that she’d gone pale and her green eyes were wide with worry. “Is it - is it the -“

James realized what she was implying. “No! No, don’t worry!” He ran up to her. “No it’s just -“

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Why haven’t we started? Why’s everyone standing up? Why are Remus and Sirius trying to get an owl out of Emmeline’s hair? Where’s -“

“Shh shh,” James attempted to calm her even though he could tell it was pretty useless. “It doesn’t matter -“

“Doesn’t matter? James how could this not matter?”

“It doesn’t matter, because,” James closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re starting. Who gives a damn about that merlinforsaken ring anyway?”

“Ring? I - “  
  
James didn’t feel like explaining so he elected to ignore her. “Go get Frank, Marlene and Dorcas and be back here in ten minutes, ok?”

Lily gasped.

“What? What is it?”

“Dammit James! You’re not supposed to see me in the wedding dress before the wedding! It’s bad luck!”

“Trust me,” James took her hands in his. “We’ve had pretty much all the bad luck we can.” He nodded towards where Sirius was struggling to get the large tawny owl back in its cage.

Lily smirked slightly. “I guess.”

“Now go!” he told her and nudged her towards the door.

She was halfway into the house before she turned around and said. “Potter? You are aware that if you don’t tell me later I will hex your misters off.”

“Absolutely.”

…

Not long after, Remus found himself seated in the front row next to Mrs. Evans. Emmeline had been calmed down and was now sitting with her arms crossed looking evidently disgruntled at having had a large bird tear her hat to shreds. James was rocking on the balls of his feet, looking nervous while Sirius grinned and patted him on the shoulder. The crowd’s murmuring subsided as the music started.

Marlene and Dorcas walked down the isle in their matching green satin dresses, holding baskets filled with green and pink flower petals which they threw onto the ground. They were smiling but when they got to the altar they shot James and Sirius looks that said something along the lines of: _I’m not murdering you because there are witnesses but if we were alone I’d hit you with a shovel._

Then came Lily, arm in arm with Frank. Being two years above them at Hogwarts, he and Alice had always been role-models to them, so when Lily’s father had died, she’d asked Frank to give her away. The crowd let out a small gasp. Even Emmeline stopped sulking and swiveled around in her seat to get a better look at Lily (having been a bit busy when she came out into the garden the first time). Lily’s cheeks were flushed and her smile was so wide she looked like she might cause a small nuclear explosion of happiness that would blow Cornwall off the end of England.

Remus noticed James’s legs shaking slightly as he nervously ran his hands through his hair. It calmed him. When Lily reached him the bald wizard in dark purple velvet robes standing behind the altar cleared his throat: “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls…” the man started. The wedding continued uneventfully until eventually they got to the I-dos.

“Do you, Lily Evans, take James Fleamont Potter to be your lawful wedded husband?”

“I do,” Lily said trying not to laugh at the grimace on James’s face. His parents really had been cruel to him with that middle name.

“And do you James-“

But before he could pronounce James’s awful middle name again the doors to the garden burst open.

“Sorry we’re late!” Mary yelled breathlessly.

The crowd turned to look at them in shock.

“We’ve got the ring!” Peter added holding up a ring that glinted in the sunlight.

The two of them ran up to the altar and handed the ring to James, whose mouth was hanging open. Lily had crossed her arms and was eying her literally-almost-husband-if-they-hadn’t-been-so-rudely-interrupted skeptically.

James recovered from his shock just enough to smile at her. “Funny story-“

She put a hand up. “I don’t wanna hear it.”

“No, you really don’t.”

“Let’s just get married shall we?”

“Good idea.”

“Let’s continue,” said the man marrying them as Peter sat down down next to Remus.

“You couldn't have made a quieter entrance?” he asked.

“How about: Thank you Peter for being an amazing friend and fixing everything that we messed up in the first place! Why, it’s no problem Remus you’re very welcome.” Peter crossed his arms indignantly and threw himself down to Remus’s left.

Remus smiled. “Thanks mate.”

Peter didn’t reply and instead turned his attention back to the wedding happening before them. Things proceeded peacefully with no major interruptions or owl-related inconveniences. Finally, the happy couple exchanged rings while Remus silently prayed that Mary and Peter had taken the time to sanitize Lily’s.

…

TWO YEARS EARLIER

Everyone in the Gryffindor common room had gone up to bed at least an hour ago. Only James and Lily had remained due to the amount of head student duties. It was half past two in the morning and Lily was beginning to feel delirious with exhaustion. As the words on the page started to swim before her eyes she considered going up to bed and finishing tomorrow. If only she had the time. James had quidditch practice on Monday and Thursday evenings and she was studying for her NEWTs every other day of the week except Saturdays, which she had kept free so as to maintain her sanity.

That plan was failing. Her body was already in critical survival mode but only thanks to eight cups of coffee a day and ignoring useless things like brushing her hair in favor of sleep. Unfortunately this plan had also backfired as her hair had got so matted she’d had to ask Marlene to cut it. Now it was shoulder length, though awkwardly longer on the left than on the right. 

She tried rereading the paragraph in front of her for the fourth time, this time grasping some more information.

“So…” she said rubbing her eyes. “It says here that to calculate the average of the points lost, you need to… sum all the points lost together and then divide that by…” she squinted at the page. “The amount of times that the points were docked.”

“Which is…” James checked his notes. “…exactly what we’ve been doing.” He was also looking exhausted, which was strange since he normally looked and acted like he had enough sugar and caffeine in his system to kill a small whale.

“So how…” Lily checked her notes. “Is Ravenclaw’s average 600 when they never lost more than fifty at a time.”

“What?” James scooted round next to her to read her calculations. “Evans - six times three isn’t thirty.”

“What - oh crap! It’s eighteen isn’t it?” She buried her face in her hands and groaned. “Why don’t you wizards have calculators?”

James frowned. “Have what? But also -“ He swore loudly. “You’ve been multiplying all this time! You only had to sum the numbers together!”

There was a moment’s silence.

Then Lily burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. She laughed until her stomach hurt without even noticing the tears of pure tiredness streaming down her face. They had spent the past four hours trying to figure out what the answer was when the problem was in the sum. The situation was so pathetically sad that it was borderline hilarious. Honestly she’d felt that feeling way too often for her liking: NEWTs, her sister and of course the war. In that moment all of the stress and fear of leaving Hogwarts that had built up inside of her just burst out. It wasn’t long before she full out sobbing.

James was looking panicked as he patted her awkwardly on the back. “It - it’s okay,” he was saying. “We’ve found the problem. Now we just need to - you know - solve it.”

Lily remembered spluttering something along the lines of: “That’s the problem… tired… wasting time… NEWTs… I need coffee.” That last one was desperate.

“You know what -“ James said and stood up. “You just need a break.”

“No time for a break.” Lily sniffled. She really was trying to regain her composure. The whole situation was really very embarrassing. But for some reason her brain no longer had control of her brain. She felt like she was freewheeling down a slope on a bike but had accepted her fate of crashing into the tree at the bottom.

“Yes there is!” he said while seemingly scanning the room for something. “Look, five minutes so you can calm down and then we’ll get right back to it - there’s one!” He reached for a record. “ABBA..” he read slowly. “No idea who they are - must be a muggle group.” He shrugged and put the record in Mary’s muggle record player.

He pressed play and turned the sound down to almost the minimum so that it wouldn’t wake up the entirety of Gryffindor tower.

Lily recognized that the song was Dancing Queen. The song instantly made her want to jump on the nearest piece of furniture and sing over-dramatically into a bottle of hairspray. Nevertheless she remained seated with her arms crossed.

“This is stupid.” Lily declared, but she could feel the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.

“So?” he asked. “Come on -“ He took her hands and attempted to pull her up from her seat.

She gave a halfhearted protest but allowed herself to be dragged up off her chair.

“See?” said James knowingly. Lily realized she was smiling and quickly wiped it off her face.

“It’s still stupid,” she said stubbornly.

“So? When has that ever stopped me?”

“Touchè.”

Eventually it became hard not to smile as they danced - well from an outsider’s point of view they would have looked like two drunken teenagers waving their arms around to barely audible music. But Lily honestly didn’t care - a feeling she hadn’t felt in far too long. It was so… free. For some reason, the same braincell that had decided that it would be a good idea to eat grass when she was four, remembered that in German, to say ‘I don’t care’, they said: “Das ist mir Wurst.” Which roughly translated to: “This is sausage to me.”

The thought instantly made her start giggling.

“What?” James asked amused.

She didn’t answer, she could hardly breathe, her giggles were getting so hysterical.

“What is it?” Disappointment at not getting the joke had replaced the look of amusement of James’s face.

She mustered all of her self control to stop the giggles enough to speak. “This is sausage to me,” she gasped before bursting into another fit of laughter.

“What?”

Lily reached out to grab the back of a sofa to steady herself but with her vision obstructed by the tears of laughter in her eyes she ended up missing, losing her balance and falling over onto it. She lay there for a while shaking with laughter, covering her face with her hands.

“Hey hey hey!” James accentuated every ‘hey’ by jumping over the sofa and plopping himself down on the floor on the other side with his back against a coffee table. “What does ‘this is sausage to me’ mean?”

“I don’t care,” she answered.

“Ok - but then how do you find it funny?”

“No - I mean it means: ‘I don’t care.’”

“How?”

“In German they say: ‘Das ist mir Wurst,’ which translates to ‘this is sausage to me’.”

Apparently James’s brain must have been just as fried as hers because he shook his head and laughed. It took Lily a minute to calm herself down before putting her hands behind her head and staring up at the ceiling. She was about to doze off when James spoke.

“Don’t you wish that it could all be sausage to you?”

“What do you mean?” she asked sleepily.

“You know…” he gestured vaguely. “Everything.”

Lily thought about it for a while. “I mean it could be to you.”

“What?”

“Well… you know with you being a pureblood and all.”

James made a noise that was somewhere near a choke and a scoff and scrambled to his feet indignantly (for dramatic effect probably). “Evans do you really think so little of me?”

She propped herself up on her elbows and raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, to be fair, nothing that you did in the first five years of knowing you made me think very highly of you.”

“Are you joking? Everything that I did in the first five years of knowing you was to try and get you to think highly of me!”

Lily swung her legs down from the sofa and sat up. “Well, it failed miserably.”

“It was the thought that counts,” he muttered and threw himself down next to her. He ran a hand through his hair (Lily resisted the temptation to slap it away) and exhaled deeply. “To be honest I’ve never really considered it.”

“Considered what?”

“Not joining the order. I mean my parents always told me that blood superiority is a bunch of bull - and then there’s Sirius and Moony and Peter who aren’t going to be in the death eaters’ good books any time soon and then there’s you know…” he made the same awkward gesture he had a minute ago.

Lily frowned. “What?”

“You.”

“Oh.” Lily was stunned. Dancing queen had finished and Fernando had started playing. “That’s - that’s nice of you.” Of course it was more than ‘nice’ of him but that was all she’d been able to get out at that moment.

“I mean - how would our friend group stay together? How would we make plans like: ‘Can we go out to lunch next Tuesday?’ ‘No sorry we’ve got to go and try and defeat Voldemort that week - can we reschedule for the week after next?’ Like it’s weird to let you go through that alone.”

Before Lily knew it she’d thrown her arms around him and was hugging him. “Thank you,” she said before quickly letting go. “I mean - you have no idea how much it means to me that I’m not going to be alone.”

James took a second to recover from his shock. “Yeah - I mean - no. I mean like yeah, no. You’re not.”

“God, sorry, I didn’t want to make it awkward -“

“It’s not awkward -“

“It’s just nice to know that someone is gonna be there for you.”

“Until the very end.”  
  


…

“So what happened then?” asked Marlene who was listening eagerly.

The ceremony had ended. Lily and a large portion of the female wedding guests were sitting around a table at the reception. Mary had insisted on knowing the reason for choosing ABBA for their wedding. Over the course of the story more and more people had dropped in to listen until Lily had accumulated a small army of well-dressed romance addicts. 

“Well, that night was the night of our fist kiss. It was wonderful, so sweet and passionate.”

“Did he touch your face as he kissed you?” asked Mary breathlessly.

“Of course, and then he wrapped me in his arms, and held me close...” She blushed as a chorus of awws, oohs and aaahs rang through the crowd.

…

Unbeknownst to Lily, her now-husband was telling the exact same story to her now-brothers-in-law at the bar.

“And then we kissed,” said James.

“Huh,” said Remus before taking another swig of butterbeer.

“Tongue?” Sirius asked with his mouth full of chips.

James thought about it. “Yeah.”

“Cool.”

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So will I add onto this? Idk?????? I’ll see I mean it took me a literal year to get three chapters out so… anyway this has been fun. To anyone who’s commented or left kudos I love youuu and thank you sm ❤️

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering James is slightly inspired by Ross, Remus by Chandler, Sirius by Joey. (That's the scheme I'm trying to stick to but it can vary). I don't know about Peter though. Comment and tell me? Also just comment and tell me what you thought in general. Sounds cliché but constructive criticism is always welcome. I know there wasn't a lot of Jily in this but there should be more in the next chapter!


End file.
